Five of the10 sets of human remains found since December, 2010 in the thick brush off Ocean Parkway on Long Island's South Shore have been found by Mallia and Blue.
The 59-year-old Mallia, a 31-year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department and a former PI, has worked with Blue, a 7-year-old German shepherd, since 2005, having trained him from puppyhood as a cadaver dog. Blue lives with Mallia in Brookhaven.
The canine-human team of Mallia and Blue, combining tenacity, luck and ability, has been pivotal to the search.
Mallia's persistence, well-known to local law enforcement, led to the discovery of the first body.
In June, 2010, a missing persons report triggered a police search for Shannan Gilbert, a Craigslist sex worker who disappeared from the gated community of Oak Beach in May.
After searching the community over the summer and turning up nothing, Mallia and Blue returned on December 11, 2010.
Mallia walked west with Blue on the brushy shoulder of Ocean Parkway, relying on FBI data showing that most bodies are dumped about 30 feet from the road.
Shortly before 3 PM, Blue alerted: he had picked up the scent of a cadaver. His tail began to wag and he cocked his head.
Then Mallia saw it: the skeletal remains of a woman in a nearly disintegrated burlap sack.
When the team came back two days later with homicide investigators, Mallia, working alone, found the second body, wrapped in burlap.
By early afternoon on that cold, windy December day, Mallia and Blue had found two more bodies.
The Gilgo Beach body dump had been discovered.
The article from the New York Times.
Video footage of the area on Ocean Parkway where the body dump was found. [New York Times.]
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